The following relates generally to wireless communication and more specifically to narrowband communication for different device capabilities in unlicensed spectrum.
Wireless communications systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication content such as voice, video, packet data, messaging, broadcast, and so on. These systems may be capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing the available system resources (e.g., time, frequency, and power). Examples of such multiple-access systems include code division multiple access (CDMA) systems, time division multiple access (TDMA) systems, frequency division multiple access (FDMA) systems, and orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) systems, (e.g., a Long Term Evolution (LTE) system). A wireless multiple-access communications system may include a number of base stations, each simultaneously supporting communication for multiple communication devices, which may be otherwise known as user equipment (UE).
Some wireless communications systems may support communication between base stations and different types of narrowband device types. For example, in enhanced machine-type communications (eMTC) and narrowband-Internet of Things (NB-IoT) deployments, mobile devices may communicate with a base station (or other serving station) using resources allocated specifically for one deployment or the other. Such systems may not be configured to account for differences in resource capability or bandwidth availability.
Some wireless systems support narrowband communication configurations such as NB-IoT and eMTC in unlicensed radio frequency spectrum. However, resource availability or regulatory restrictions for communication in an unlicensed spectrum may impose limitations that impact narrowband communications. These limitations may reduce the efficiency of narrowband communications and may not account for varying capabilities of narrowband devices within the system.